February 20, 2009

Because it's Friday and, well, I think we can all use a laugh after listening to the nightly news all week, I'd like to share this little video that I found on YouTube. *warning: contains some 'language'.
grace kelly - grace kelly - grace kelly!

February 02, 2009

I spent most of Saturday making new Belts to put up in the shop. I hadn't made any in awhile and it was fun making something besides purses and pouches.

Something else I haven't done in awhile is make banana bread. I can eat bananas when they're pretty ripe, but when they get to the point of being 'slimy' when you peel them, it's definitely time to make bread.

I use the recipe from my favorite, most used cookbook (as you can see from the stained and torn cover) The Overlake School Cookbook. Mine is copyright 1984, the listing on Amazon is copyrighted 1993 and I don't know if it will have the same recipe in it. So I thought I'd share it with you.

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Banana Bread

2 ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups sugar (I use a little less than a cup)

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups flour (I used wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk (you can substitute regular milk and add a little lemon juice, this is what I do)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In large mixing bowl, mash bananas. Beat in sugar, eggs, and oil. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix into batter with remaining ingredients.

I actually make two smaller loaves with this recipe, reducing the baking time to about 50 minutes. And you can easily double it and make 3 nice sized loaves.

This makes a nice, pound cake-like loaf that's still moist. And it's so easy to make there's no way you can 'goof'.

After I took my banana bread out of the oven, I picked up my [very pregnant] Daughter-in-law and we went out to lunch. Sort of a last effort at some 'girly-time' before she's completely surrounded by boys. We also caught a movie in the afternoon, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'. We both enjoyed it, Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt played incredible parts. I did have to chuckle at a statement in a review I was reading about the movie this morning,

"For the most part, unfortunately, it’s little more than a nearly three-hour reminder that we begin and end our lives in diapers."